And Then a Moment of Silence

In quietness and trust is your strength (Isaiah 30:15)

It is July. July is vacation time, officially that is. Actually the airlines and travel agents would have us believe that any time is vacation time. July still qualifies - at least kind of. Schools are closed, except in elementary some children must learn extra things because report cards raised a concern or parents have extra ambition for their little ones. Highschoolers too actually, extra credits or make up classes needed here or there for many various reasons. Come to think of it, summer school is not only the kids. I’ve been there too. I remember myself one July with my wife and our two little ones settling into student housing, and me trying to sleep those hot Indiana summer nights full of nightmares, desperately trying to memorize conjugations of New Testament Greek verbs, prerequisite for a seminary degree program to commence in September.

So … July vacation time? Perhaps not for everyone all the time. The vacation image often includes a competitive stress with it also, many loud stories about glamping trips or attendance records at Calgary Stampede, etc. This year my mind is full of – many things in changing times and changing seasons - a busy head. Uppermost in this head is a considerable preoccupation with my faith. Yes, right in among the spring and summertime activities, my good mix of reading and writing and basement bathroom renovations – the homey things.  In addition there are the things out there - the headlines, social media posts, our American neighbors trying to cope with a dealmaking, dealbreaking inconsistent president, and us citizens in our country not sure whether we want a Liberal Canada or a broke-down private enterprise Conservative shadow of the U.S. Among all this I need my faith, in fact very grateful that I am able to claim it.

Gratitude for a living faith, thanks be to God. As indicated in my latest blog, I am a Mennonite, part of the Anabaptist faith community with its beginnings back there about 500 years ago. I rest my case as scribbled in that easy-writer post (take a read if interested). [i] I am increasingly grateful that our Anabaptist communion is now right in here among many other faith communities. We belong! We have a significant place in today’s mixed up world. With this vantage of gratitude I go to my mailbox (yes snail mail) and there, printed on paper, discover immediately some differing ways of thinking about this!

To whit, “Closing Prayers: Facing the end times on our knees” front cover article in Ministry, [ii] a Journal for pastors, a Seventh Day Adventist publication which I have received free of charge forever. They just keep sending it to me, and eventually I have become grateful because they just don’t quit. Then there is latest issue of Canadian Mennonite,[iii] a publication serving my denomination of the Anabaptists (as per subscription. no freebies here😅), latest issue front cover article entitled “Here be Dragons.”

First impressions? Two magazines of very different vintage. First impulse? Start hyperventilating. I can get quite upset with my denomination, the Mennonites, our signpost publication with cover picture and editorial imaging an ancient mapmakers’ lore reaching the edge and not knowing what’s beyond. Even after reading some interesting reports of current celebrations including good testimonials of what 500 years of church history means to us, there remains a mysterious mystery, woher wohin. Cover picture of dragon heads and tails just a little too close to Dungeons and Dragons, that unchristian gamers game.  The other magazine? Well, it’s nice to find a heading fully focused on – prayer and end times? Most of us can easily relate to that, I think. A read of the feature article, however, leaves me sort of unmoved. It hardly focuses on end-times, mostly proof texting with a few thematic Bible verses to make four points on how to be a good prayer warrior.

Two publications, neither quite cutting it for this reader. And having begun this little tome with my faith gratitude, how shall I continue?  Do I enter critique and analysis? Or … perhaps the scripture in the epigraph above? Another scripture comes to mind, leans in the same direction, “Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh” (Ecclesiastes 12:12). I shall go the quiet route - and immediately a memory. I am reminded of ... silence.

Many years ago I was chosen to be the pastor of a new church. Among the enthusiasms of the early participants there were details – not only organizational but also purposive. How and where would we focus this new ministry? One of our deacons had a perspective which took hold among us. Before we got too busy with vision statements and goals she suggested we have a silent retreat. We did, a resource person one of the members of Church of the Savior, Washington, DC! We experienced a miracle at that retreat - learned how to sit without words, how to pray and share out of the silence. It became an inspiration for this pastor and a core directive in the life and ministry of that congregation. 

In recent months I have devoted some time to reading about and participating in some celebration of “Anabaptists at 500.” My suggestion at this time is that we need to believe more in our ministry of peace, which the world needs desperately and we are well situated to provide. We need, however, the strength and the power of our witness to come out of silence – rather than the noisy posts on social media, or noisy critiques of devious and/or good politicians. Let our witness emerge out of the quiet and confidence. More than ever we need it now.

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[i] “Know Your Place”, https://www.jcfroomthoughts.blogspot.com/.

[ii] Silver Springs, MD: Seventh Day Adventist Church, Vol.97, no.5, May 2025.

[iii] “500 Years Behind Us, Uncharted Waters Ahead”, Vol.29, no.07, July 2025.